The M-III guitar, Gibson’s take on the sharp and shred-friendly design trend of the ’90s, is now back in production.
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If you think that Gibson is all about classic rock guitar designs, then you may have not heard of the MIII. First introduced in 1991, the M-III was Gibson’s official take on the “shred” guitar concept.
The guitar looks similar to the various super-strat rock guitars, which is quite a departure from the typical look of Gibson instruments.
A quick glance at the guitar would give you the impression that it looks like a Jackson, albeit with rounder edges. Gibson claims that the guitar has an “ultra-pointy” styling, but the shape of the guitar has more round corners than sharp ones. I’m not saying that its bad to be round, rather the guitar’s semi-sharp edges gives it a distinct look while still being familiar.
Like most Gibson guitars, the M-III starts off with a mahogany body, although its asymmetrical double cutaway shape is far from the usual Gibson shapes. The guitar’s neck is made of maple to provide a shred friendly playground for your fretting hand.
Unlike common super-strats, the neck is glued-in to the body much like other Gibson guitars. The neck profile is designed to meet the demands of fast players, featuring a 25.5″ scale length, compound radius and 24 jumbo frets. Guiding your fretting hand are arrow-head inlays that are meant to compete with the striking inlays found on other shred friendly axes.
Gibson equipped the new M-III with what they consider as their most powerful pickups – Dirty Finger+ humbuckers for the neck and bridge position, and a Dirty Finger+ single coil in the middle. The typical 5-way pickup selector is complemented by Gibson’s modern push-pull switching system that allows coil-splitting. This expands the tones that you can get from the instrument , Gibson describes the sound as taking you “everywhere from warm, vocal neck pickup tones, to roaring crunch and soaring leads in the bridge, to bright, shimmering single-coil tones—all with unprecedented power and sustain.”
Since dives and flutters are important techniques used by guitar wizards, Gibson equipped the guitar with a Floyd Rose vibrato paired with a locking nut and Grover Mini-Kidney tuners. The hardware come in black finish, including the knurled knobs. A notable difference of the new M-III production model is that it wears no pickguard, said to better emphasize the various finishes of the guitar.
The Gibson M-III has an MSRP of $2,082 and it comes in four vibrant finishes – Orange Glow, Vibrant Red, Electric Lime and Cosmic Cobalt. You can find out more about the guitar by visiting Gibson.
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I like these new Gibsons, I purchased a Galaxy Trans Starr which gives me the same tone as a Vintage SG & an old Strat.
I like that Gibson is rediscovering maple fretboards again & the aggressive new shape.
The Galaxy has a high gloss finish on all their fretboards. I like their Kahler tremolo set up as well,
keeping the vintage appeal they do not use a locking nut. two major benefits in my book.